New Delhi, April 8: The Supreme Court on Tuesday closed a plea filed by the Jharkhand government challenging the Jharkhand High Court order barring power cuts during Ram Navami and other festivals.

A bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar decided to close the proceedings after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Jharkhand government, submitted that the state discom kept power cuts restricted only to procession routes in terms of the previous order of the apex court.

Sibal said that an affidavit of the Managing Director of the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) regarding compliance with the directives issued by the top court will be placed on record.

On Friday, the CJI Khanna-led Bench stressed that power cuts should be kept to a minimum duration during festivals and ordered restricting power cuts be limited to procession routes during Ram Navami this year. It modified the Jharkhand High Court order barring power cuts during Ram Navami and other festivals, clarifying that essential services, including hospitals, must not be affected by the power cuts.

In its special leave petition filed before the Supreme Court, the Jharkhand government had argued that temporary power cuts were a necessary safety measure as long flags carried during processions posed a risk of electric shocks.

The JBVNL has been routinely suspending power supply for several hours on festival days to prevent accidents.

The issue gained attention after a five-to-ten-hour power outage in Ranchi during the Sarhul festival on April 1. Taking suo motu cognisance, a bench of Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Deepak Roshan of Jharkhand High Court on April 3 stayed the state government’s practice, questioning the lack of alternative safety measures and the hardships caused to residents. It expressed concern about the effects of the outages on local businesses, which faced forced closures and revenue losses. Such disruptions, the Jharkhand HC said, not only cause inconvenience to the residents but also pose safety risks.

The Chief Justice Rao-led Bench had ordered the JBVNL not to undertake long power cuts unless absolutely necessary.

Aggrieved with the directives, the Jharkhand government petitioned the Supreme Court, saying that past electrocution incidents during Ram Navami and other religious processions justified these precautionary power cuts.

New Delhi, April 8: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday and sought her intervention in West Bengal teachers’ crisis, emanating from a Supreme Court verdict, which dealt a big blow to the recruitment of more than 26,000 teachers in the state.

In his two-page letter to President Murmu, Rahul said that treating the teachers selected through fair means on par with tainted ones will be a serious injustice to them and therefore it was important to draw a distinction between the two – one selected via fair means and the tainted, selected through unfair means.

Drawing President’s attention to the crisis arising from 26,000 job losses, he urged the President to take stock of it and take some steps for ‘redressal’.

“I request you to kindly consider their request favourably and urge the government to intervene in the matter to ensure that candidates selected through fair means are allowed to continue,” Cong MP wrote in the letter.

He further wrote, “Most untainted teachers have served for nearly a decade. Terminating them will force lakhs of students into classrooms without adequate teachers. Ther arbitrary termination will destroy their morale and deprive their families of what is often the sole source of income.”

Notably, the Supreme Court, on April 3, upheld an earlier verdict of the Calcutta High Court, leading to invalidation of 25,752 appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff. These appointments were made by a recruitment panel set up by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016.

The court observed that the entire selection process of TMC government was “vitiated and tainted beyond resolution”.

The SC verdict came as a blow to the ruling party and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee particularly in light of the fact that it comes ahead of party’s poll preparations for the 2026 Assembly elections.

New Delhi, April 8: With China facing a 34 per cent US tariff and Vietnam 46 per cent, India’s relatively lower tariff of 27 per cent may shift supply chain dynamics, helping the domestic tech hardware sector grow further, according to a new report.

India’s electronics manufacturing, especially smartphones, are set to gain a competitive edge as the US imposes tariffs on electronics imports from key countries, says a CLSA report.

The shift in the global supply chain could favour India, particularly in the smartphone manufacturing segment, it added.

Smartphones account for $51 billion worth of imports for the US, with China, Vietnam and India being key sources, according to the global broakrage.

Apple and Samsung already have robust manufacturing operations in India.

India’s lower tariff, combined with its large domestic market and increasing backward integration supported by the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, enhances its cost competitiveness.

Dixon Technologies is likely to be a key beneficiary of this shift in the global supply chain dynamics.

While Apple and Samsung’s assembly operations are either in-house or with companies not listed in India, Dixon’s role in the supply chain is expected to grow, said CLSA.

According to other reports, the expected direct impact of US reciprocal tariffs would vary in nature for the sectors in India. The impact is expected to be largely neutral for electronics, textiles, agricultural products, chemicals, and automobiles and parts.

In electronics, higher reciprocal tariffs on China would mean a neutral impact for India’s electronics exports, said the report by CareEdge Ratings.

Meanwhile, the recently-announced Rs 22,919 crore Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), which has the potential to generate nearly 1 lakh direct jobs and several indirect jobs, focuses on the local production of sub-assemblies and bare components like inductors, resistors, PCBs and capacitors, etc.

The scheme envisages to attract investment of Rs 59,350 crore, result in production of Rs 4,56,500 crore and generate additional direct employment of 91,600 people and many indirect jobs as well during its tenure.

There has been five times increase in production over 10 years (17 per cent CAGR) to reach Rs 9.5 lakh crore in 2024, while 25 lakh jobs have been generated.

There has also been six times increase in exports (43 per cent CAGR) to Rs 2.4 lakh crore in 2024. Electronics items are now among India’s top three export items.